GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Stephanie Stanfield thinks about her little brother Jason all the time.
"He was a good guy, he had just finished his education and was going to be an electrician....he was going to the grocery store to buy my Mom some chocolate milk," says Stanfield.
But in 1995 Jason Stanfield never returned from the grocery store after he came face to face with 15-year-old Willie Clemons. Clemons was 15 years old when he shot and killed a man during a robbery outside Fulton Heights Foods on East Fulton Street near Wilcox Park as horrified patrons looked on. The murder took place in Oct. 1995.
In 1996 Clemons was sentenced to life in prison but a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave him a lifeline.
"In juvenile cases a life sentence mandatorily imposed is unconstitutional thereby requiring courts to review factors," says Clemon's attorney Lesley Kranenberg.
This week Kranenberg argued that he's already spent the majority of his life locked up.
"He was the product of an extremely trying and trauma filled childhood," says Kranenberg.
But in the end it was not enough as a Kent County Judge ruled that Clemons has a violent history with hundreds of misconduct violations in prison and will remain locked up for life without parole.
Clemons plans to appeal the decision.
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